U.S. Navy: Video Games Improve Brains, "Fluid Intelligence" [Effects]

Welcome to the new world:

U.S. Navy: Video Games Improve Brains, "Fluid Intelligence" [Effects]: "

The cognitive effects of certain video-game-style activities are not only impressive but can last a couple of years, a researcher for the Navy recently explained.

If gamers don't want to believe that video games have an effect on them — at least any effect that will cause them to do antisocial things — will they accept research that suggests games make their brains work better?

Here's Ray Perez, program officer for the Office of Naval Research's warfighter performance department:

'We have discovered that video game players perform 10 to 20 percent higher in terms of perceptual and cognitive ability than normal people that are non-game players,' s

...

'We know that video games can increase perceptual abilities and short-term memory,' he said. They allow the player to focus longer and expand the player's field of vision compared to people who don't play video games, he added.

While there is empirical evidence of increased brain plasticity in video gamers, Perez said, the process behind it is not well understood. His belief, he said, is that the neural networks involved in video gaming become more pronounced, have increased blood flow, and become more synchronized with other neural networks in the brain.

Perez credits games and game-like simulations with giving people the ability to more quickly adapt new mental strategies for problem-solving. He says that, for 50 years, it was believed that no training could improve a person's "fluid intelligence" — the ability "to work outside your present mindset, to think beyond what you have been taught, to go beyond your experience to solve problems in new and different ways."

But video games, the Navy researcher believes, are proving to be able to improve fluid intelligence, for two to two-and-a-half years. To get the nuances here, be sure to read this report in full.



Adults Benefit from Playing Video Games [U.S. Department of Defense's Armed With Science site] [PIC: Brain made of lime jello]

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Study: Not All Kids Are Computer Whizzes

Is this really all that shocking to anyone who is even slightly fluent in the use of tech? From NPR:



Study: Not All Kids Are Computer Whizzes: "

A study reveals that kids have more trouble searching on the Internet than we may think. Guest host Audie Cornish speaks with Allison Druin, the director of the human-computer interaction lab at the University of Maryland. Durin discusses ways to help kids search more effectively online.

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New, deeper AP program

This eases my mind a bit about the AP program...


New, deeper AP program: "[This is my Local Living column for Jan. 28, 2010.] If someone told you the College Board was about to rip apart the SAT and rebuild it, would that excite/surprise/aggravate/frighten you? Me too. It’s about to happen, not to the SAT, but to our nation’s second-most influential test, Advanced Placement, with large consequences for our high schools and colleges. The AP program has such a tight grip on the school curriculums of suburban areas such as ours that it has come close to inspiring the same fear and consternation as the SAT and ACT. [See my new rankings of all Washington area schools, based on AP and International Baccalaureate test participation, this Monday on this blog and in the Post.] I think that’s good. AP is better than the SAT or ACT. It is a challenging series of courses in three dozen subjects ending in three-hour exams, independently written




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US Navy: Gamers '10 to 20%' better at fighting terror

From Joystiq:

US Navy: Gamers '10 to 20%' better at fighting terror: "

[Image Source]

The Office of Naval Research is currently conducting research in video game training that it says has 'surprising' results in regards to military personnel reaction time and adaptability in the fight against terror. According to an article available on the Department of Defense's official website, doctor of educational psychology and program officer Ray Perez said the research has discovered that video game players perform '10 to 20 percent higher in terms of perceptual and cognitive ability' than non-gamers.



Citing a need for soldiers to be 'agile problem solvers' and 'agile thinkers,' Perez notes that video game training can help field adaptability and the 'cognitive advances' derived from the training can last up to two and a half years.



'We know that video games can increase perceptual abilities and short-term memory,' Perez said, adding games allow players to focus longer and expand the field of vision compared to non-gamers. If it means the brave men and women serving have a better chance of coming home, we're all for it.



[Via GamePolitics]

US Navy: Gamers '10 to 20%' better at fighting terror originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 27 Jan 2010 04:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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High School, College Instructors Differ on Students' Readiness

From Curriculum Matters:

High School, College Instructors Differ on Students' Readiness: "

What does it mean when far more high school teachers think their students are ready for college than do the college instructors who teach them? It means we have a pretty big disconnect between what high schools think is needed for success in college and what actually is needed.

This is not exactly news. We know there are many reasons that high school students fail to make it to college, or fail to thrive once they're there. But a new survey of thousands of high school and college teachers, conducted by ACT Inc., fleshes out a few of the key reasons why.

One reason is that high school teachers and college instructors have differing views of what skills are important in college. High school teachers, for instance, rate things like media literacy and financial literacy as far more important than do college professors, who value the content areas of math, English, and science more.

Another is that high school teachers think they've prepared their students for the rigorous types of reading they will encounter in college, but college professors disagree. Science and math teachers in high school say it's important for students to master reading strategies in those subjects, but they spend little or no time teaching such things.

Expectations play a role, too. High school teachers say that they or their colleagues have lower expectations for students who are perceived as not being college-bound.

These are key new findings of the survey. The report also reiterates many other interesting findings from earlier ACT curriculum surveys that are worth examining. For example, high school teachers tend to see as crucial for college a very wide swath of content and skills, compared with college professors, who believe in a shorter list of essential skills and knowledge.

This is interesting stuff to keep in mind as the debate about defining and measuring college readiness rolls on. The full survey is packed with data; a shorter version that highlights the findings and focuses on their policy implications is also available.

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Google's Eric Schmidt on Gaming

From Google's Blogoscoped:


Google's Eric Schmidt on Gaming: "

From H+ Magazine:

Google CEO Eric Schmidt made news at the recent G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh, suggesting that multiplayer video games provide good career training – particularly in technology – where workplace collaboration stimulates innovation. “The game world is good training for a career in tech,” he said. “It teaches players to build a network, to use interactive skills and thinking.”

“Everything in the future online is going to look like a multiplayer game,” said Schmidt to this international audience. “If I were 15 years old, that’s what I would be doing right now.”

[Thanks Destinyland!]

[By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: Google's Eric Schmidt on Gaming | Comments]

[Advertisement] Books about Google available on Ebay"

Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don't Go

A great article from the Chronicle of Higher Education about the dangers of pursuing an advanced degree in the humanities. It's a sad state of affairs, and I wish it were otherwise, but that's not the case.

Here's the killer quote for me:

Most undergraduates don't realize that there is a shrinking percentage of positions in the humanities that offer job security, benefits, and a livable salary (though it is generally much lower than salaries in other fields requiring as many years of training). They don't know that you probably will have to accept living almost anywhere, and that you must also go through a six-year probationary period at the end of which you may be fired for any number of reasons and find yourself exiled from the profession. They seem to think becoming a humanities professor is a reliable prospect — a more responsible and secure choice than, say, attempting to make it as a freelance writer, or an actor, or a professional athlete — and, as a result, they don't make any fallback plans until it is too late.